Those with more than one coop.....

[johnsons-r-us]

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Even in my few short months with my chickens I have notice they sure are creatures of habit!!

 

[eggscetera]

I have a flock of 16 layers and a small flock of meat birds(to breed for chicks come spring). The layers are in the main coop and the meat birds (a roo and 3 hens) went into the 18x36' tomato greenhouse this fall (with a straw bale/blue tarp shelter) . Nobody's free ranging at the moment since we have a foot of snow on the ground. I leave the layer coop door open so they can come out if they want but they are wimps and prefer to stay inside. This past summer everybody free ranged. At night the layers roosted in their coop and the meat birds in theirs (they were not yet in the tomato house of course since it was still full of tomatoes). But watch out if you are keeping two roosters- they will fight. I needed to separate the two flocks when the new layer rooster matured and tried to breed the meat hens. Geez- he had 15 hens of his own and still went after the meat girls.

 

[gritsar]

And once they develop a habit it's next to impossible to break it. Chickens could try the patience of a saint.

I recently added a phoenix X cross rooster whose behavior puzzled me. Though he would spend all day with the younger, standard sized hens he insisted on sleeping with the brahma hens. He's tiny and he doesn't have a snowballs chance in a car wash of successfully mating the brahma hens. The brahma hens want nothing to do with him. I decided it was time for him to roost with the hens he spends the day with.

Two nights in a row I went in the brahma coop after dark, grabbed him and put him in the baby coop. On the third night he saw me coming. He jumped down from his roost, ran out the door and into the baby coop next door, screaming the whole way. He's slept with the younger hens since.

 

[jaj121159]

I have two coops built inside an old chicken barn. Currently both coops share one large run. The chickens migrate between coops not only to roost but to lay their eggs. One day I'll find four eggs in the East Coop and 14 in the West Coop. The next day the egg scenario is reversed. The coops share a waterer and the run, but once they are in the coop for the night and the pop doors are shut, they have to stay put. Eventually, I'll fence off the run and sort coop inhabitants by breed, then everybody will have to stay put.

 

[AlienChick]

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This has been my experience.

 

[johnsons-r-us]

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That's a good one!

 

[Junaleefarm]

We having 2 roosting coops and one nesting coop. We put roost boards in two coops this way it is easier and cleaner to collect eggs out of the coop with all of the nesting boxes. We also feed the chickens in the nesting coop so the feeders don't end up covered in poo. This system works out well and the chickens do seem to favor one coop over the other.